November 7, 2006

Nov. 9, 2006 1:05 PM

Last April I had the opportunity to speak with Lao citizens who were going to the polls to participate in an election. At that time I recorded thoughts and observations in my personal journal but chose not to post my writings on our web site. Now, six months later, citizens in the United States are voting in an important election. I am posting my article about the Lao election at this time so teachers and students can contrast American electoral procedures with practices followed here in Laos.

Today, a Sunday, was Election Day in Laos. Our employees work seven days a week so we reserved a company truck to carry them to the polls before they headed out to the field to continue clearing bombs and landmines. For several days leading up to the election they persistently reminded us that they needed to vote today. I have discussed the election with several of the workers but am still uncertain about the true nature of their enthusiasm.

Our workers might be motivated by a desire to participate in choosing their nationís leaders. This election, for the National Assembly, occurs like the American presidential election, just once every four years. Today, 111 representatives will be chosen to serve four-year terms in a national legislative body. No one I spoke with could (or, perhaps, cared to) identify an issue that was central to the election. Furthermore, no one that I questioned knew anything about the various candidates, including their names. In most American elections some groups suggest change; other groups defend the status quo. Those impulses seemed absent among the Lao voters who spoke with me.

Voting is compulsory in Laos, so it's possible that our workers' eagerness to get to the polls was based on a desire to avoid criticism or punishment. Many are living in this province temporarily and feel no particular interest in local affairs. Still, most of them, men and women alike, felt it was important to be at the polls when they opened at 7:00 a.m. and cast an early vote. Each of Laos' provinces will select representatives to the National Assembly based upon the size of its population. Khammuan, being one of the less populated provinces, is entitled to just seven representatives. Eleven candidates are on the ballot.

Throughout the country, a total of 175 candidates are vying for the 111 available seats. There was no primary leading up to todayís general election. Voters did not participate in directly selecting the candidates. Rather, all candidates were selected by the Lao Peopleís Revolutionary Party, the only political organization permitted within this one-party state. (It was said of the old Ford Model T that "you can have any color you want, as long as it's black." Here in Laos, you can vote for any candidates you want, as long as they are red).

Photographs and brief biographies of the candidates began appearing in public places a couple of weeks ago. The photographs of Khammuanís eleven candidates always appear in one long horizontal row, never in clusters or groups that might suggest division or alliance. Several people told me that this presentation helped them select the candidates that they would vote for. They explained that the photographs are always organized from left to right in the order of the party's opinion of the candidate. Several voters told me they accepted the partyís judgment and voted for the first seven candidates in the pictured row, and against the four ìless qualifiedî candidates pictured farther down the line.

At the polling place that I visited there was genuine cheer, bordering on merriment. Apparently, everyone heeded the advice or directive to get there as close as possible to the 7:00 a.m. opening. Children watched wide-eyed as the entire adult population of their village happily milled about before forming a single line leading to the polls. There was a lot of talk and discussion among those present. Was this happiness evidence of enthusiasm over the election? Or, was it simply the pleasure people find in coming together with others to experience an unusual event? Probably some measure of each.

Iím resisting the temptation to cynically dismiss our workersí concern over the election as their response to a legally required event. Or, to characterize todayís event as a theater that denied them a genuine opportunity to define their nationís future. However distant this election was from our American ideals, I am certain that many of our workers were moved by a sense of civic responsibility and that their participation represented the value that voting is, simply put, the right thing to do. I only wish they had an alternative that some pundits propose be added to the American ballot: a box they could mark with the choice "None of the above."